The Multipurpose Swop Shop
By°driving a car, taking a holiday, or simply watching TV you've earned yourself a place on three separate files; and it's estimated that up to 50 different databanks, many computerised, know who you are. Most of this ' fingerprinting ' activity is. it is claimed, ultimately for your benefit, but more and more information is exchanged between government departments, commercial institutions and private organisations, and Britain now lags critically behind other Western countries in controls over the potential abuse of such
' file swops '. Roger Cook asks who knows who you are - and how? Research by Robert Del Maestro
Producer RITCHIE COGAN